How college led the field to host young champions

"People were surprised when we won the bid for the championships," says a smiling Jeanette Dawson. "After all we were up against places like Hickstead and Windsor as well as other colleges and equestrian centres."

Jeanette is the principal of Bishop Burton College in East Yorkshire and she did not doubt its credentials.

Ever since she first heard the news that London would be hosting the 2012 Olympics she has been determined to put the college well and truly on the equestrian map.

There were already plans to expand its equestrian centre but Jeanette says the fact that London won the Olympic bid inspired her. She says: "I felt it was an opportunity to do something different and bigger than we had planned."

The Olympics were four years away at the time but instead of waiting to see what knock-on effect this would have on sport in the region, she decided to seize a golden opportunity and make something happen.

The college has undergone a 25m re-development programme during the past few years, a large chunk of which has been spent on the equestrian facilities, including a state-of-the art indoor arena and lecture rooms, opened last year by the Princess Royal.

The college decided to double the gallery space for the arena, a move which has already paid off with full houses for demonstrations by top riders including Mary King and Oliver Townend. A new outdoor arena is currently being built.

The college already has its own cross country course and runs successful bi-annual horse trials. "Our first ambition was to get good, affiliated competitions here, which we have done and the second was to secure an international competition," said Jeanette.

The college put in a bid for the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI) European Pony Championships with the support of British Eventing's regional director, Chris Shaw.

They had all the facilities necessary including accommodation and catering.

The event attracts the top young international riders who take part in dressage, show jumping and eventing competitions over four days. It is being held in the UK for the first time in 13 years and is a first for the North of England. "There will be medal ceremonies and flags flying and teams from between 12 and 14 countries competing," says Jeanette Dawson. I think the place will be buzzing."

It should also be good for tourism in the area and an ideal opportunity for East Yorkshire to sell itself, says Jeanette.

The icing on the cake so far as she is concerned, was the news that the European Horseball Pony Championships will be run in conjunction with the European Pony Championships. That means four days of horseball action in the arena between at least six European teams, including Great Britain.

Bishop Burton is already a training venue for Great Britain's equestrian team.

The college had hoped it would be chosen as a training base for one of the Olympic equestrian teams, an ambition now in doubt for reasons of distance. In the long term, Jeanette says she would like to see Yorkshire becoming established as a centre for international equestrian competitions.

"We already have events such as Bramham horse trials and polo and we could do much more if we presented a collective approach."

The measure of the county's success would be that next time Yorkshire is chosen to run a major event, nobody is surprised.

The FEI European Pony Championships run from July 27 to August 1.

Success stories – names to watch at European pony championships

LAURA BECHTOLSHEINER, 25, is the golden girl of British dressage. She started riding at the age of three. She competed in Pony Club eventing and then concentrated on dressage from the age of 13. She was selected to ride for the European Pony Championships and won team silver medals in 1999 and 2000. She also won team bronze at the Young Rider Championships in 2004 and 2005.

Also in 2005 she became the youngest British Dressage National Champion at the age of 20. She has gone on to compete very successfully with Mistral Horjis.

LAURA COLLETT, 20, is making a name for herself in eventing. She began by competing show ponies and working hunter ponies and won the Supreme Pony Championship at the Horse of the Year Show in 2003. She then switched to eventing and won team gold and individual bronze at the Pony Europeans in 2005 and individual gold in the Junior Europeans in 2007. She finished last season on a high with Rayef, winning double gold at the Young Rider European Championships.

MATT SAMPSON, 19, also began riding at the age of three and gained plenty of experience at his parents' equestrian centre at Aston, Sheffield. He started affiliated showjumping at seven and went on to win at the Horse of the Year Show and in the National Championships.

In 2005 he won team gold at the Pony Europeans; team bronze at the Junior European Championships in2006 and team gold in 2008 in the Junior European Championships.

He also rode in the Australian Youth Olympic Final for the British team, winning team and individual bronze.

He finished last year on flying form, winning the Young Show Jumper of the Year title at Olympia riding Rush on M.

He will be competing in the Sunshine Tour in Spain which begins this month.

What is Horseball?

"Fast, furious and with plenty of goals," is how Dave Pettifor, the British Horseball Association's head of training describes this sport. A cross between rugby and basketball on horseback, it began in France in the 1970s.

Horseball was introduced to this country in 1991 and has been growing steadily ever since. Dave first saw it being played at the Horse of the Year Show in 1992 and thought that it compared with rugby for the thrills that it provided. He and a group of people subsequently got together to form the Horseball Association and promote the sport in this country. The association is now a member of the British Equestrian Federation and there are hopes that it may become an Olympic sport. The players use a football which has a harness and six straps. There are two teams of four players, with two in reserve and two referees, one seated and one mounted.

The game is played in a standard arena and the goals are one metre loops suspended 3.5m vertically off the ground. A player must make at least three passes between three different team members before being allowed to score a goal.

For more information, go to www.british-horseball-association.btik.com